“There are a few reasons why there’s such a pent-up demand for an Apple cellphone,” Ryan Block (managing editor of Engadget) blogs:
1. Cellphones today suck. Especially smartphones. It’s 2006 and a good phone — and I mean an honestly really good phone — still hasn’t been made. A new competitor — any new competitor, be it ALP or Linux or the Applephone — is highly anticipated.
2. People are already sick of Windows Mobile dominating the landscape. I’ve been a long time Windows Mobile user, but let’s face it, it’s pretty much the only smartphone game in town in the US. You can go Symbian, but the devices just aren’t there through carrier purchases. Palm is obviously a joke, and Linux / JUIX is nowhere to be found.
3. Cellphones haven’t gotten music integration right. Sure, there are enough phones with media buttons and microSD slots to go around, but that doesn’t mean they work well.
4. Using your phone and your Mac is often a painful and tedious experience. In fact, the same goes for using your phone and most any computer.
5. People are curious to see how radically the cellphone can be re-envisioned, and the expect Apple to lead that charge.
Block then explores “the realities about the Applephone that people probably don’t want to face.
1. The battery life will probably be pretty awful
2. The phone will be buggy
3. It won’t be what people want
4. It probably won’t have 3G
5. It’s safe to assume it won’t work with Windows out of the box
6. It won’t be revolutionary
More in the full article here.
[Attribution: Digg]
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Hey!!! Where’s MDN’s take? I refuse to believe this article is legit, until MDN posts its take on the story.
Now get to work!!!
I have no doubt in my mind that the 1st gen apple phone will have horrible battery life.
He’s right about one thing, expectations are too high. If Apple included trans-warp capability with their iPod Phone, they would still be disappointed.
Speaking of 3G, did you ever fart so hard you ended up in another zip code?
He might be right about one or possibly two of those potential problems, but Apple won’t release a phone which all six were true. (Whereas most everyone else would, has, and will keep on doing so.) Just like Apple solved several problems with the original iPod, they will do it here.
It’s not that I’m psyced for an Apple phone, I just want one that works w/ mac like all the other perifrials do. My Verizon phones suck now, and they try to get you to pay for access to you phone’s sync, camera and use it as a modem. The phone is the only piece of tech that is purposfully blocked from the mac. My 3 year old Moto w/ Verizon worked cause it was just a phone. Syncing and modem usage when no local access was available was a great fallback. Now that I had to upgrade because it simply wore out, I’m not able to use 90% of my RAZR’s abilities. Verizon and others are only forcing Apple to do this. As usual, the need for an Apple phone is industry-created, and I hope Apple does so.
The new Apple phone will actually teleport (via trans-warp capability as it is powered by dielithium crystals) in front of said person and then teleport you back whence you came when transmission is complete…..(I need a drink, its been a long 12 hour day…..)
It will be called the MacFone/MacPhone. There will be outage at first (Remember MacBook Pro?) Then it will stick.
Apple knows there are high expectations. If they do disappoint, it will be because expectations are too high.
My $.02
My cingular razr works fine with the Mac via blutooth. It syncs, I can transfer pics and music. It is small. The razr is a lame phone otherwise, bad reception, slow response, crappy camera.
Verizon sucks, I only found out after I had bought the phone (v710) that most of its features were blocked by Verizon.
Please Apple make some of this pain go away. I mean damn, I had a StarTac in 1994!! In 12 years all we’ve go to show is the razr?!
My sweet, beautiful wife Rosalina is very excited to upgrade from her G3 iBook (working fine for years) to the new MacBook. She says hi.
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I totally disagree with statements like “People are already sick of Windows Mobile…”
There isn’t enough Windows Mobile. Who doesn’t want to see Windows Mobile on their microwave, water heater or hair dryer? Microsoft clearly has something right with Windows Mobile. It has all the ease of use, functionality and stability Apple has been trying to to come up with, and failing at, for years on their crappy computers, MP3 players, etc.
The only way an Apple iPhone will be successful is if Apple licenses the wonderful Windows Mobile from the geniuses in Redmond. An Apple cellphone? Don’t make me laugh. Stick with a winner—get anything with Windows Mobile.
Your potential. Our passion.
I sincerely doubt Apple’s phone will be “buggy”. Apple doesn’t release “buggy” products. No version 1.0 product is perfect, but only nitpickers will call it “buggy”.
What if… Apple isn’t doing a phone at all.
All this hype and it isn’t even coming from Apple.
I loved my MOT flip phone. Except for getting smaller, today’s phones don’t do anything I really want.
I say make the dial pad BIGGER and throw away the control keys. Phones should not be this difficult to use efficiently.
The only people that clamor for an iPhone are MDN visiting Mac zealots who suddenly need to be “rescued” from cell phones ever since they found out that their lord and savior Steve Jobs might be creating one. My RAZR is just fine. Hundreds of millions of satisfied cellular customers across the globe manage just fine.
Apple’s going to paint a phone white with a dumbed down interface and you’ll all swear it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.
RMN
Well, I have to say that I have a Treo 650, and it most certainly does not suck. I have tried Windoze Mobile, and it was good, I guess, if the main purpose of your phone is to watch tiny video clips. Sort of. But if you want a phone that runs 1000s of Palm shareware programs, and has great email and a one-handed interface, the Treo is it.
That being said, I am really looking forward to seeing what Apple can do!
Has anyone else noticed that Apple no longer sells iSight cameras on their site? In light of this, I believe Apple is going to release an iSight-Centric phone that would replace its current concept on an iSight camera. It would basically be an iSight camera that has mobile phone functionality built into it. I recognize that all laptops have iSight built into them, but obviously no desktop does. Imagine carring on a video chat with your friend outside and when you returned to your home you could just mount it on top of your flat panel, etc., and continue the conversation. Why do what all the other cell phones have been doing for years. Just do video conferencing really well and leave it at that.
Zune Tang:
Your transparent attempts to protect Microsoft’s sinking reputation are troubling and have me rethinking the merits of free speech. At least sign your posts with your real name and company.
Redmond cannot possibly think people are stupid enough to believe this silly talking points campaign that appeared simultanesously on numerous Web sites in late 2006. These are not serious (nor even humorous) posts from customers who truly care about Microsoft products, but rather, are clearly orchestrated by a struggling corporation desperately trying to control a message. I can see Ballmer now, as he throws another chair, “We’ve got to copy Apple just one more time and mount a grass roots evangelism campaign similar to the one conducted by their loyal buyers. Hire some PR people and get it done.”
The sad thing is, Microsoft has no idea this unethical, underground Web PR is doing nearly as much damage as their operating system failures. It is truly pathetic.
George W.
Photographer
Elk Grove, CA
This is shit:
1. The battery life will probably be pretty awful
2. The phone will be buggy
3. It won’t be what people want
4. It probably won’t have 3G
5. It’s safe to assume it won’t work with Windows out of the box
6. It won’t be revolutionary
Ansering these questions is exactly why Apple is great at what they do. I’m sure there was a hitlist of things the phone needs to do, and they were all answered. This phone has been worked on for how long now? Over a year? You’re gonna tell me that it’s not gonna be tight. I think you have another thing coming. You can’t sell a phone to millions of people and have it be shit. Yes, the carriers out there can afford to do it with a $99.99 phone, but not Apple, and not for pobably $299.00+. It will be very interesting, but I think you’ll have a much more solid performer than you think.
– Pi Has Spoken
( Oh, when the phone wirelessly connects to your computer, so will your iPod. Same technology, smae integration, same day announcement!
)
I put my SIM back in my Nokia 6682 after a day in my MPx220.
MPx220 + Win Mobile = really nice phone that completely sucks
Nokia 6682 + Symbian = really nice phone that works
I have a Treo sitting in a box. Big, ugly, heavy.
My RAZR looks good and I used it for about a month.
Blackberry data plan through Cingular for an extra $30….right
Symbian is quick and the Nokia 6682 is a very nice phone…. I only hope that my new Apple PodPhone (or whatever) works this well.
My Motorola flp phone is crap and not very intuitive. Apple just needs to make it simple and to make it so that you can play music easily and to pass files to and from your computer. You may not carry a USB flash drive around with you but you probably will have your phone!
GEOPIX…Zune Tang won’t do that. He will just bore you to death with his repetitive MS chanting of:
Microsoft is good
Microsoft is great.
Everyone iPod thats purchased
Makes Ballmer quite irate.
Peace, love and all that jazz…..
It’s going to be big.
Really big.
You won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it will be.
Neither will anyone else.
At first.
Buckle up.
-c
MW: ‘return’ (to begin)
I say to Apple– bring on whatever you can dream up. People are so dorky sometimes when they spout off on things they haven’t seen. Great… so you have an opinion on your own conceptualization of someone else’s conjecture. Woo-hoo! You deserve a medal. Maybe you deserve a cookie, too, because you’re kinda’ pissy while having diarrhea of the brain.
Apple– lay it on me. Gimme’ anything you can dream up. I may not buy it all, but so far, your stuff is a heck of a lot more interesting than the crud The Opinionators® spew.
MDN “two,” as in “Count ’em.”
Zune Tang good. Fire bad.
He’s playing. Sheesh.
Sarcasm, dudes. Dudes, sarcasm.
1. The battery life will probably be pretty awful
2. The phone will be buggy
3. It won’t be what people want
4. It probably won’t have 3G
5. It’s safe to assume it won’t work with Windows out of the box
6. It won’t be revolutionary
This describes my KyroceraPOS to a T and a little of my Samsung (blue)
Caruso-I started to buy a 6682 a year ago. It looked perfect. I thought something better was around the corner, and I’m still waiting. Damn!
Billy Gates-That was shockingly crappy funny.
Chrissy-you are talking about a phone, aren’t you?
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MW:plans, as in “The best made plans, laid to waste, of mice and men”
I want mine made out of transparent aluminum. Thanks Scotty
: )